


Thermodynamic Equilibrium

by dragon_zena



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, pov youre me and i give one snippet of lore/backstory to kravitz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29030103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_zena/pseuds/dragon_zena
Summary: Taako is really warm. Kravitz runs really cold.
Relationships: Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	Thermodynamic Equilibrium

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sanguine_gay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanguine_gay/gifts).



> Heyyyy so it's me again...a gift for my friend Tiosa (who writes wonderfully and has written two banger fics for this fandom that you should check out) and my first TAZ:B fic despite me being a huge fan

**_A few things that are warm:_ **

**The Sun.** This one is obvious. The sun, which maintains all of the light in this realm, which makes winter more bearable and summer, less so, is warm, and that in itself is an understatement. It is the comforting rays that bleed through the window and warm your cheeks, it is the bright heat that calls for a parasol and a pair of shades, a loose and lofty sundress and sandals.

**Fire.** Next best thing when there’s no sun to be found, sitting around a small fire and pressing your hands as close as possible, or enjoying other people’s company at a bonfire. Lup’s flame comes to mind, the ease in which she calls to it, face alight, smile sharp. A hearth, a fireplace. Dangerous if handled improperly, free. 

And from that, warm beverages, hot foods. The togetherness that comes with sitting at a table with loved ones, or on the couch next to your spouse. Walking into your home and feeling the heat of a busy kitchen rush out to greet you. And then, later:

**Taako.** Taako is really warm, not warm like Magnus or Lup, who are living furnaces, but still nice to sit next to in a cold building. He is soft, smooth, and squishy—he’s comfortable. When he’s nervous, his hands start to sweat. You wouldn’t know that unless you’ve held his hand. It doesn’t stop him from having to bundle up during the winter, but this is fact. 

**_A few things that are cold:_ **

**Winter.** Once again, like the sun is warm, winter is obviously meant to be colder than normal. This is especially true of Neverwinter, in spite of the name. Winters are especially harsh, the lakes freezing over, thick and solid layers of ice coating the life within, the winds quick and cutting. Layers and layers of snow that call for a thick jacket and layers upon layers of clothing, covering chest, hands, ears. It is long and grueling, brutal and absolute.

**The Ocean.** Interestingly enough, or maybe not, the ocean is freezing, unsuspectingly so. Sticking your toes into a pool to acclimate yourself is nothing akin to the drop of a body into briny water as far as the eye can see, the way that it shocks your body and causes it to lock up—in fear, or dread, or surprise, or all.

Both of these things are as cold as they are deadly. Prolonged exposure, or sudden temperature drops. The way that your breath coalesces in the air, that your body grows sluggish. It is snow days, spent having snowball fights or making snowmen. But above all, it is not to be trifled with. Just as the heat scars, the cold takes. Which leads us to:

**Kravitz.** A servant of the Goddess of Death, her loyal reaper, Kravitz has been dead for some time, now, which means: no actual bodily functions to be had. No heartbeat, no blood pumping, no body heat. It doesn’t really bother him—it had always been just him for a long time, so he never really had a reason to worry about whether his cold hands made other people uncomfortable (and then he met Taako and the rest of his death-defying crew, and he cared more about it, craved warmth, to exude and receive it). 

Point is this: when it comes to temperature, the two of them are diametrically opposed.

Sometimes, Kravitz stresses over this fact. Tries to do a few jumping jacks before bed to get his nonfunctional heart thumping, his unnecessary blood moving. Taako will watch him do this, exasperated, his lithe tail thumping somewhat impatiently against the covers until he’s had enough, laughing and pulling his husband to the mattress and smothering him with kisses. Forehead, cheeks, nose, mouth. All over his neck. Funnily enough, that seems to be all it takes to make Kravitz feel warm and flustered, and they settle down shortly after, wrapped around one another. 

Sometimes, in the summer, it’s too hot for Taako to function. He gets fuzzy, cranky (not that he would ever show it—he likes being infallible, although he’s working on allowing himself to actually confide in others for things outside of shitty yet harmless colds and the like). When Kravitz is home, they spend their time watching things like Fantasy Catfish on the couch surrounded by their cats, or listening to Angus as he discusses what he’s been up to at school or by Maggie’s, or... _Other Things_. Wink. He doesn’t glue himself to Kravitz’s side—never one to seem clingy—but it’s clear that he does appreciate the coolness of his skin to balance out the heat of an active night, or a smoldering day.

Winter is different, yet more of the same. Taako’s legs, crushed in Wonderland and not healed properly, leave him with flare-ups of pain in the cold—even more so when it’s raining. There are days where it’s difficult for him to get out of bed, days where he has to ask Kravitz for a little space, or just a layer of blanket between the two of them. He never lets go of his husband’s hands, though, calloused from the life of a musician and a career in reaping. He still steals kisses from him when they’re lying together, one of them grading papers and the other reading a book (or, more recently, writing musical compositions), still rolls his eyes when Kravitz rubs his hands over his arms in an attempt to make himself a more bearable temperature, still wraps his tail around one of those arms and gently thwacks him with it before pulling him down for another smooch.

Today, Taako is curled up on the lush carpet of their home, a warm patch of sun making him glow. His ears are lax against the floor, occasionally twitching, and his breaths are steady, easy. His tail swishes idly. There’s a fresh loaf of banana nut bread resting on the window sill. Somehow their cats haven’t gotten to it—then again, Taako is a light sleeper. Not even the cats can slink past without his knowing. 

Kravitz snorts, and the ear closest to him flicks up towards him before relaxing again. It’s a sign of trust above anything else, and while Kravitz has known for years that Taako now trusts him implicitly, especially by virtue of being his husband, he never takes it for granted. It’s always incredibly gratifying to see Taako calm and relaxed, to know that, in a single moment, he’s not worrying about losing everything (and it’s something that he’s gotten so much better about, a fear that never truly goes away but that has been handled with the kind, gentle hands of the people closest to him, his family), or about lesson plans, or about any other mundane yet domestic issues that they face on a regular basis.

It’s only when Kravitz sits next to him, legs loosely crossed, that Taako blinks a single eye open, mouth curling up.

“Hey,” he whispers quietly, fondly, head tilted a little to look up at him.

“Hi,” Kravitz responds, hand gently settling on his husband’s cheek, warm from the sun. He gently runs a hand under his eye, grinning. “You look peaceful. Day off, today?”

“Mmm,” Taako responds, stretching and shifting around. When Kravitz goes to move his hand, one of Taako’s own grabs it in the air between them, presses it back against his face once he’s situated himself against Kravitz’s shoulder. Once there, he nonchalantly waves his free hand, “Half-day. ‘S normal, or whatever, and some kid set off an explosion that left the entire west wing smelling like Maggie’s dog school or whatever, so I called it because dog smell? Not Taako’s thing.”

Kravitz rolls his eyes, amused, “And of course, the way you never act on throwing Magnus out when he comes here smelling as such reflects that.”

Taako gently bats at his chest, “He bathes, at least.”

“That he does,” he concedes with a chuckle.

“And you’re home, early, too, my man, what’s going on there? No big bads to chase down, today? They giving you a holiday?” 

“Slow day,” he responds with a shrug, lying his head on top of Taako’s. “The Raven Queen will summon me if that changes, but as is, my day is free, now.”

Taako hums, presses his face into Kravitz’s chest, and says nothing else. He relaxes, resting his head down on top of Taako’s with a content sigh. Kisses the crown of his head and lets the warmth that he feels well up in his chest.

They sit there for a while, with the sun against their skin. Taako makes sure to slice the loaf of bread and they eat a few slices together before he leaves to put it in its container. Kravitz maintains his position, scrolling through his stone listlessly. The smile on his face does not drop once, and his cheeks hurt a little bit. It’s a little silly, to be so happy about something so small, but to know that this is his life—that he will come home to a husband who loves and cares about him, that he has a family and friends to look forward to after a long day of being the bearer of bad news, well.

Kravitz was the only son in an empty home, a place where love was meant to be fostered but was not nurtured. He found love in music, in curling script across lined pages, treble clefs and bass clefs and notes dotted along musical staffs. He was alive, and then he was not, and then he had a new purpose. But his dream of being a conductor had been derailed, and there’s not much free time when it comes to bounty hunting, of all things. He is not ungrateful, of course; he owes the Raven Queen for more than he has the heart to say.

It’s just that he did not expect to have two other reaper coworkers to link elbows with him and take him out to bars and dinners, or for Magnus to let him play with his dogs in exchange for the opportunity to reminisce about his wife with him, or for Merle and Lucretia to teach him how to garden despite his fear of killing everything he touches. It’s that he did not expect being pulled along to the mini-vacations that Davenport goes on with some of the others, that he doesn’t expect to be missed at family dinners, but is. It’s that he did not expect Angus throwing his arms around his leg when it’s Taako’s turn to take care of the little guy, nor does he expect to be so invested with the Caleb Cleveland books that he spends hours upon hours discussing the logistics and literary merit of the series with him.

It’s just that when Taako makes his way back to their spot at the window—followed closely by their two cats—and plops back down next to him, he feels something so incredibly tangible and overwhelming that he presses his face into his husband’s shoulder and just breathes, kisses it when Taako makes a questioning noise to assuage him. Pissboy, their young, scrappy shorthair, curls up between them, and Princess Lomenelda, their huge forest cat, lies across their laps. Pissboy bats at Princess’s tail, but she doesn’t seem to give much of a shit, so he settles quickly. One of Kravitz's hands gently runs through his soft fur, and the other hand is once again captured in Taako’s, who fiddles around with it thoughtfully.

“You're really warm for once, bone boy,” Taako murmurs against his spouse’s knuckles. “I’m definitely not complaining, but I mean…?”  
  
“Just really happy, Taako,” Kravitz responds, voice thick. “Really, really happy. And in love.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah,” he affirms. “Sometimes, things are literally ‘heart-warming.’”

“And this includes me, of course,” and Taako is obviously joking, but…

Kravitz kisses his shoulder again, “It does. Can’t say that I felt as happy as I do, now, with you. And everyone that I’ve met since meeting you. I have…” He squeezes Taako’s hand. “I have a family, now. And I’m so happy, so. I mean, that is to say—”

Taako interrupts him by smooching his brains out.

Kravitz doesn’t have half the mind to worry about if his skin is cold or not.

(It’s not.)

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Love y'all ! Bye!


End file.
